KANSAS CITY, KS, June 16 --
Troy Rutherford and the Gardner Motorsports Team will head back to California a
little richer after picking up $10,000 for their win in Saturday's 40 lap Sprint
Car Racing Association (SCRA) main event at Lakeside Speedway.
For Rutherford, the win marked the first time since 1999 that he had claimed an
SCRA feature. Saturday's Lakeside finale also marked the end of the
Midwestern portion of the Non-Winged World Championship (NWWC) tour. The
NWWC series will resume on October 25th at the Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix,
Arizona.
"To win the last Non-Winged World Championship race out here and to win
$10,000 sure makes it easier for the guys to enjoy the ride home,"
Rutherford smiled after a hard fought victory that consisted of ten lead changes
among five different drivers.
Rutherford also won the JB Enterprise B-Main Event and earned a ninth place spot
on the starting grid for the finale. Prior to the B-Main, last night's
winner, Steve Ostling, flipped in the JE Pistons Dash. With work still
being
done in the pit area on Ostling's car, dash winner Rickie Gaunt and front row
partner Cory Kruseman were only inches apart exiting turn four as they came down
to accept the green flag.
Gaunt held the lead exiting turn two on the bottom and believed that he was
clearly ahead of Kruseman when he moved to the outside line heading down the
back straight. Unbeknownst to Gaunt, Kruseman had a good run off the
banking and was carrying more speed when their cars touched tires. After
the contact, Kruseman slid out of control before his car launched off the ground
and flipped through the turn three billboards.
Kruseman's spectacular accident triggered flips by SCRA rookie point leader
Michael Hinrichsen and George Gervais. Also collected were the cars driven
by Ronnie Clark, Kevin Doty and Casey Shuman. Of the drivers involved,
Kruseman appeared to be the most visibly shaken. Miraculously, Kruseman
cleared the cobwebs, ran across the race track and jumped into the Cory
Witherill / WSA Health Care #61 TCR that started the race with Jimmy May in the
cockpit.
John Scott assumed Kruseman's spot for the restart. Gaunt held a slight
lead coming down to complete the opening lap and ran nearly three-abreast with
Richard Griffin to his inside and Scott to his outside. Rutherford took
advantage of the jockeying going into turn one and moved his Sander Engineering
No. 4 Sled into the second position behind Griffin.
Rutherford jumped into the lead for the first time after a lap three restart.
Griffin fought back, however, and retook the lead before the end of the
lap. With one set of corners being faster down low and the other set of
corners being faster on the cushion, Rutherford and Griffin exchanged the lead
at some point on nearly every lap. That is, until third place Scott
suddenly slowed to a stop on the racing surface and brought out the caution
light on
the eighth lap.
Once racing resumed, Rutherford and Griffin continued to swap the top spot until
Troy Cline shook-up their battle by slipping under Rutherford on lap 14.
Two laps later, Cline passed Griffin for the lead. Before the end of
the 16th lap, Lance Gremett spun to a stop causing the yellow flag to wave
again. At that time, only Rutherford knew that he had been without power
steering since the third lap of the race.
"We blew all the power steering fluid out at the beginning of the
race," Rutherford later said. "It was kind of locking up, so I
was afraid to go to the top because I didn't want to run the car into the fence.
I found a nice
groove on the bottom, but when Griffin and Cline went by me on the top I knew
the bottom was getting too slow."
The complexion of the race quickly changed two laps after the restart when Cline
slipped over the turn one cushion and slapped the wall. Griffin had no
chance of avoiding contact and clipped Cline. As Griffin's hobbled car
began to slow due to a punctured a right rear tire, the cars behind him all
bunched up. Kruseman had worked his way back to sixth when Danny Sheridan
inadvertently drove over his front end causing him to spin. Sheridan
subsequently tumbled end-over-end, but was not hurt. During the red flag,
Cline and Griffin both made repairs and joined Kruseman at the back of the field
for the restart.
Like a man on a mission, Kruseman had once again worked his way back up to the
sixth position when Cline flipped into the turn four catch fence on lap 25.
Gremett had also fought back from an earlier spin and was running fourth on the
restart when he flipped in nearly the same spot as Cline. Neither man was
injured.
Charles Davis, Jr. had been the man on the move since the lap 18 restart. Working
the bottom, Davis officially put the Joe Morales / O'Reilly Chevrolet No. 94
Buckley into the lead on the 27th circuit. Kruseman passed Rutherford
three laps later only to have a rim-riding Rutherford take it right back.
As if being briefly passed by Kruseman lit a fire under him, Rutherford pulled
away from Davis for good after retaking the lead on lap 33. Kruseman drove
around Davis as he passed beneath the white flag for what would result in a
memorable second place finish. Griffin, who heads home with the NWWC point
lead, nearly nipped Davis at the checkered flag, but had to settle for fourth as
Mike Kirby finished closely behind in fifth.
###
SCRA RACE #20 - LAKESIDE SPEEDWAY, KANSAS CITY, KS (NWWC #6)
Date of Race: 06/16/01
SANDER ENGINEERING TIME TRIALS
1. Richard Griffin, Chaffin 50, 17.335
2. Lance Gremett, Gremett 85, 17.503
3. John Scott, Scott Mtrsprts 83, 17.535
4. Troy Rutherford, Gardner 4, 17.634
5. Bob Ream, Jr., BRAT Racing 8, 17.658
6. Troy Cline, Cline 11, 17.710
7. Charles Davis, Jr, Morales 94, 17.723
8. Jimmy May, Witherill 61x, 17.735
9. Rip Williams, Jory 3, 17.753
10. Danny Sheridan, Sertich 92, 17.787
11. Michael Hinrichsen (R), Lake Mtrsprts. 6, 17.866
12. Mike Kirby, Geurin 5, 17.875
13. Brian Venard, Pratt 12 , 17.981
14. Shane Alach, Witherill 16x, 18.075
15. Adam Mitchell, Mitchell 99, 18.100
16. George Gervais, Gervais 9, 17.189
17. Kevin Doty, Dooling 6x, 18.206
18. Glenn Crossno (R), Crossno 38, 18.255
19. Ronnie Clark (R), Winter 138, 18.454
20. Casey Shuman, Pratt 12x, 18.471
21. Josh Davis, Davis 98d, 19.407
22. Hank Winter, Winter 33, No Time
Already qualified for JE Pistons Dash: Steve Ostling, Mike English, Cory
Kruseman and Rickie Gaunt
HEDMAN HEDDERS HEAT 1
1. Venard, 2. Griffin, 3. Davis, 4. Sheridan, 5. Rutherford, 6. Clark, 7.
Gervais.
SHAVER ENGINES HEAT 2
1. Ream, 2. Alach, 3. Gremett, 4. May, 5. Hinrichsen, 6. Doty, 7. Shuman.
KSE PRODUCTS / SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS HEAT 3
1. Kirby, 2. Cline, 3. Mitchell, 4. Scott, 5. Williams, 6. Crossno,
JE PISTONS DASH
1. Gaunt, 2. Kruseman, 3. Griffin, 4. Scott, 5. English, 6. Ream, 7. Gremett, 8.
Ostling
JB ENTERPRISE B FEATURE
1. Rutherford, 2. Williams, 3. Hinrichsen, 4. Crossno, 5. Clark, 6. Doty, 7.
Gervais, 8. Shuman, 9. Davis
A FEATURE (40 Laps)
1. Rutherford, 2. Kruseman, 3. Davis, 4. Griffin, 5. Kirby,
6. Ream, 7. Gaunt, 8. Williams, 9. English, 10. Alach,
11. Clark, 12. Venard, 13. Gremett, 14. Cline, 15.
Sheridan, 16. Gervais, 17. Scott, 18. Shuman,
19. Mitchell, 20. Ostling, 21. Kruseman (#45 car), 22.
Hinrichsen, 23. Doty, 24. Crossno,
*Note: Kruseman started the race in car #45, but drove car #61x after
flipping on the opening lap.
